Squad news

THINKING OF ATLETICO MADRID

16 Apr 2015Víctor will have to at least make a change as Celso Borges is suspended, while Luisinho returns. Salomão and Postiga train with the team and already received the medical okay to play.

The current champions in liga visit the Riazor on this Saturday (18h00 CET), the game against Atlético Madrid represents one of the hardest challenges in the remaining of the calendar and the second match for Víctor Sánchez as the coach of Deportivo.

At least one change will be made to the lineup as Celso Borgesis suspended. The centre midfielder picked the fifth yellow card of the season in the game against Real Sociedad. At the same time left-back Luisinho returns after fulfilling his suspension, the Portuguese might return to the starting lineup.

There are novelties with the injured players, Cezary Wilk (toe fracture) is the only man that remains sidelined, while striker Hélder Postiga (lumbago) and left winger Diogo Salomão (thigh) are training with the group and on Wednesday both received the medical okay to play.

Centre midfielder Juan Dominguez picked a knock on Tuesday’s training, reason why he skipped Wednesday’s session, but the doctors expect that he will be available for Sunday. He was picked, but eventually dropped of the final list for the past game with Real Sociedad. Meanwhile Iván Cavaliro is dragging a muscle problem from the game against Córdoba CF and only completed the first part of the last two training, he should be available for the weekend.

A characteristic during the week is that Víctor, on his first full week at the club, has been doing long training sessions, mainly has he has been watching videos together with the players. On Tuesday and Wednesday the video sessions lasted half an hour, reason why the full training lasted two and a half hours.

Juan Dominguez picked a knock on Tuesday, he skipped the training one day later

Manuel Pablo is hoping to play back-to-back matches after a solid performance before Real Sociedad

Víctor is a coach that likes to participate in the physical sessions

At Atlético Madrid, the team is fully focused in the Champions League series against Real Madrid. The first leg ended 0-0 and the second game will be played on next Wednesday, so the question is if there will be rotations for the Riazor thinking of midweek’s game.

For the game at the Riazor coach Diego Simeone only has the casualty of centre midfielder Gabi, who is suspended after picking the fifth yellow card on the season. There were some injury cases affecting the team in the past, but that ended on last weekend.

Keeper Miguel Ángel Moyá (muscle), striker Mario Mandžukić (Achilles) and midfielder Raúl García (arm) are fit to play, actually the last two played against Real Madrid on Tuesday. Mandžukić suffered a face wound in the Champions League, but should be available.